Hands up those of you who have been eagerly awaiting for Pro Evolution Soccer to make it’s PS3 debut, ok now that we have established that this is the most highly anticipated game to hit the PS3 this year, lets us begin with the review.
As anyone who loves football knows, Pro Evolution Soccer has always been the game to have when it comes to eleven men kicking a ball about a field, it just offers so much more realism when compared to it’s FIFA counterpart, but does the latest version do the game justice after last years slightly disappointing (but still excellent) Pro Evolution Soccer 2006 on the Xbox 360?
The first thing that you will notice when you load up PES 2008 is that the presentation has been given a next generation gloss, scrolling the menus up or down will give you all the usual option which you have come to expect such as Exhibition, Cup, League, Master League, Training and Edit mode, there is also a thumping soundtrack to accompany it. This new look it certainly kicks things off in a good way and only serves to raise your expectations.
But what you want to know is how the game plays and we are glad to say that you won’t be disappointed, this year Shingo ’Seabass’ Takatsuka and his team have implemented a new feature call Teamvision, this is a sophisticated technique that allows your computer opponents to learn and adapt to your particular style of play, therefore if you always use the same route to goal they will soon learn this and exploit your weak spots. The computer controlled opponents are as intelligent as ever, make a slack pass and they will read it and cut it out, be slack at the back and they will make you pay.
One of the other new additions which has been causing controversy is the diving, however this isn’t as bad as some people have been making out, it is quite rare that the AI uses this move to it’s advantage and every time we tried it this it resulted in a quick booking from the (strict as usual) ref.
The star players in PES 2008 stand out as always, Ronaldinho is as speedy and tricky as ever and Rooney is like a run away train as he bulldozes through midfielders with ease, perhaps the only thing wrong with the players is that some of their on screen likenesses are quite poor, while players like Ronaldinho are very close to real life, others especially in the smaller teams look nothing like who they are supposed to be.
The most noticeable thing when you are in the thick of the action is how much better the goalkeepers have got, scoring from corners for example used to be a lot easier as usually the ball (if saved) would be palmed back into the box, however keepers will now do their best to direct the ball away from the danger areas, that’s not to say they are perfect though, at one point our keeper had made an excellent save only to stand up and walk into the post, which then resulted in him walking into the post and gifting the opposition a goal, well that’s football.
Freekicks and Corners remain unchanged from the tried and trusted formula which has served PES well over the years, as does taking penalties, however should you be on the receiving end of a penalty then you will notice something quite different, this is because the camera is actually placed behind the goalkeeper, meaning that you get to stare the penalty taker in the eyes, this is certainly a good way of doing things and while it takes a bit of getting used to it works really well.
One of the things that will please people who played last years version on the Xbox 360 is that the edit mode is back in, you can again edit players and teams, although you can’t edit strips from official teams, although this makes sense. One of the other new additions is ability to import a picture using the PS Eye and use it on a player you have created, although we were unable to test this as we didn’t have the camera available at the time.
Graphically PES 2008 is an improvement and certainly the best version yet in this respect, the action on the screen looks crisp and although slowdown has been mentioned it is not something we noticed to a great degree, except perhaps in the cut scenes. There are a few new changes worth mentioning, when you pause the game you now see a picture in picture view of the dugout, it doesn’t really serve any purpose but it is a nice touch, this also applies to the masters league menu were you will see snapshots of your fans and players. The replays offer all the usual cameras and controls to enable to you to view your goals from every angle and thankfully this year you can again save your replays, enabling you to show off your best goals to everyone who will watch.
Perhaps the biggest surprise this year is the commentary, no longer does it lag five minutes behind the play, it is actually very good and seems to be relevant to the on screen action by keeping up with the game quite well, this is something that Konami didn’t seem to master in the series before, so it’s good to see that work has gone into this.
The easiest way to sum this game up is to say that Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 plays the perfect game of football and although FIFA may be a prettier game to look at there is no doubt that when it comes to the on field action Pro Evolution Soccer once again takes the title, although this year there was only a few points in it.
